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ORATION, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Cdlwmt Bloiiuntcnt ^sioxiittioii 



u 

OF THE 

MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 
OF CHARLESTON, 

UPON THEIR 

FIRST CELEBRATION, 

IN HONOR OF 

THE BIRTH-DAY OF CALHOM 

AT THE 

CHARLESTON THEATRE, MARCH 18, 1854. 



BY W. D. PORTER. 



PUBLISHED, 

TiHil/niER WITH AN ODE WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION BY W. J. RIVERS, 

BY REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



POWER-PRESS OF EDWARD C COUNCELL. 
119 EAST BAY, CHARLESTON. 



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ORATION, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Caljwmt IpMitnmtt $,&mwixa% 

OP THE 

MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 

OP CHARLESTON, 

UPON THEIR 

FIRST CELEBRATION 

IN nONOR OF 

THE BIRTH-DAY OF CALHOUN, 

AT THE 

CHARLESTON THEATRE, MARCH 18, 1854. 






BY W. D. PORTER. 



PUBLISHED, 

TOGETHER WITH AN ODE "WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION BY W. J. RIVERS, 

BY REQ.UEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



POWER-PRESS OF EDWARD C. COUNCELL, 
119 EAST BAY, CHARLESTON. 



CALHOUN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, 

18TH MARCH, 1854. 
Resolved. That the thanks of the Association be tendered to the Hon. Wm. D. Por- 
ter, for his able and eloquent Oration, delivered this morning; and also to Mr. W. 
J. Rivers, for the Ode written for the occasion; and that the Secretary be instructed 
to request from them their manuscripts, and have one thousand copies of the same 
printed for circulation. — [Extract from the Minutes. 

W. D. H. KIRKWOOD. 

Sec'y C. M. Association. 



BIRTH D 1 Y OF CALHOUN. 

FIRST ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 
OF THE 

MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS OF CHARLESTON, 

AT THE CHARLESTON THEATRE, 
March 18th, 1854. 

ORDER OF EXERCISES: 



PRAYER BY THE REV. JOHN BACHMAN, D. D. 

ORATION, 

By Hon. William D. .Porter. 

O ID IE3 , 

By William J. Rivers, Esq. 

The warrior we hail, who hath fought unsubdued, 

While raged the dread storm of the battle around him ; 
! hail him who triumphed, unblemished with blood, — 

For Justice and Truth with fair garlands have crowned him ! 
We will praise thro' all time, the brave deeds of each clime — 
Yet mightier than Valor, soars Wisdom sublime ; 
And her vigils unwearied, bright visions disclose, 
Where Peace fears no perils, and nations repose ! 

We hail him who turned from the splendors of power, 

O'er Truth's clouded altar his banner unfolding; 
Our foes ever baffled, in strife's darkest hour, 

With homage were bowed, our stern champion beholding. 
Majestic he stood — as a prophet of God 

The future revealing — and senates were awed ! 
And his arm was still lifted, and fearless his soul, 

As serenely he paused, where death's dark billows roll. 

Shall we see, by no grateful remembrance adorned, 

The grave where our dauntless defender is sleeping! 
Tho' mourned for as never was conqueror mourned, 

Tho' wept for with grief that hath hallowed our weeping ! 
From afar to our home, shall the stranger e'er come, 

And ask for his tomb, and our children be dumb'] 
Oh, no ! o'er his ashes our deeds shall proclaim, 

How in death, as in life, we have honored his name ! 

BENEDICTION. 



ORATION. 



To-day is the anniversary of the birth of Calhoun — a day 
memorable in our annals, for it is associated with the advent of 
the largest and most commanding intellect, and of the longest 
and most faithful and illustrious public services, which it has 
pleased heaven to vouchsafe to this favored commonwealth. 
The occasion is fraught with recollections upon which we may 
dwell with pnfit, and which we should cherish with feelings 
of pleasure and pride. As we retrace the line of that great 
public career, sanding out, as it does, for near half a century, 
in bold relief, njon the history of the times — sullied by never 
an act of dishotor, subserviency or unworthy compliance — and 
illustrated by somany noble displays of genius and eloquence, 
of constancy anc self-devoting virtue in behalf of great prin- 
ciples of constituional liberty, we cannot but feel, and reve- 
rently acknowledge, how much we have been honored by the 
lustre of a name, which, in life, was our ornament and pride, 
and which, unde the hallowing sanctions of death, has taken 
its place in the moral firmament, a star among the constella- 
tions, that with c benignant glory look down upon us from 
above. Happy tta people who can claim as their own, not the 
ashes only, but thdmmortal part, — the name, the renown, and 
the example of a truly great man ; happier still, if they have 
the virtue to provethemselves worthy of such a treasure. 

Just four years 550, fellow-citizens, you witnessed a spectacle 
such as you had Ever seen before, and will never see again. 
On the day of whih I speak, all that was mortal of our dead 
statesman was broght back, with the honors of the country, 
from the late field c his glory, to the soil he had served so long 
and loved so well. The sad and touching ceremonies which 
followed, your memries will recal, without the aid of descrip- 



8 

tion from me : — that scene at the Citadel Square, when the living 
thousands there assembled, bowed by a spontaneous impulse, 
with uncovered heads, before the funeral car, that bore within 
its sable folds their pride and their hope, laid low in death ; — the 
long " procession of the bereaved " which wound its way, in so- 
lemn march, through the silent and almost deserted streets ; — that 
other scene at the City Hall, then for the first time fitted up as the 
chamber of the dead, where from morning till night the old and 
the young, the high and the humble, men, women and children, 
passed in unbroken line, through the dim-lighted catafalque, to 
look their last upon their best; — and those closing ceremonies of 
the morrow, when young men in the vigor of manhood, bore him 
in their strong arms to the temple of the Most High, where, after 
anthem and prayer and solemn service, words were spoken, of 
fitting dignity and eloquent of grief, less in praise of the dead, 
than in comfort and admonition to the living ! And how they 
laid him in the earth ; — and marked the spot vith a memorial 
stone, bearing the simple superscription of his name ; — and then, 
strewing with garlands the grave of the mighty departed, turned 
slowly and sadly away from all they had seei and heard, to 
dwell in heaviness of heart upon what they ©uld never more 
see or hear again ! All these things, I know. are still fresh in 
your hearts ; and what stranger that beheld them, but must 
have felt that one had fallen who was altogither worthy of a 
people's love, and that he had fallen among those who knew 
how to render the homage due to his worth ! 

And so, indeed, he was worthy ; and it wil be an omen of 
evil to those in whose service he lived ant died, when they 
shall begin to forget his memory, and when the sad reproach 
shall be theirs, that they honor him with teir lips, but their 
hearts are far away. 

The memories of a people — the recollectins connected with 
their great names and great events — are pa| of their best trea- 
sure : for out of these grow, in a good degre, their hopes, aspi- 
rations and achievements. Virtue, public fld private, is nour- 
ished by the contemplation of departed woih ; and one of the 
strongest incentives to a high strain of seriment and action, is 



found in the traditions and records of brilliant eras. It is a 
noble instinct of our nature, which prompts in us a desire to be 
not unworthy the fame of our fathers. To feed this instinct — 
to train the young eagles to the flight of the old ones — to culti- 
vate and diffuse the love of virtue by popular exhibitions of 
admiration and gratitude for its most signal manifestations, — 
this is the wise policy of every people who have a past upon 
which they can look back with pride, or a future to which they 
look forward with hope. The Romans were accustomed to 
carry in procession the statues of their dead ancestors ; and all 
nations that have any claims to civilization have sought to 
perpetuate in enduring forms, sensible to the eye, the lineaments 
and virtues of those who have connected their names with the 
glory of the country. We are beings of a nature mysteriously 
compounded, and are educated by the senses, as well as by the 
faculty of reflection. A sign or an image will oftentimes awaken 
emotions that the colder appeals of reason could never touch. 
As we linger around the memorials which commemorate great 
men or great actions, we kindle in imagination, and drawing 
to ourselves some portion of the inspiration of the place, learn 
to emulate what we behold and admire. Bright deeds are fitly 
embalmed in the song of the poet and the pictured page of the 
historian ; but not in vain do the painter and sculptor ply then- 
strokes of art, almost divine, to make the canvass glow and 
the marble start to life. Bust and portrait, statue and column 
are something more than mute memorials of affection : for, 
while they perpetuate the remembrance of the dead, they speak 
to the hearts of the living in a language which, in all ages and 
countries, has found an interpretation and a response. There 
is true philosophy, as well as a fitness and a beauty in these 
things. 

We have had two races of great statesmen. Of the first race 
were the statesmen of the Revolution. They had a glorious 
work to perform, and manfully and thoroughly did they accom- 
plish it. It is true that great occasions generally call forth 
great men, but it is equally true that these, in their turn, mould 
and fashion, if they do not create, such occasions. A remarka- 
ble exemplification of this may be found in our Revolution, 



10 

which was essentially a work of principle. It is one of the 
chief distinctions of the statesmen of that day, that without 
waiting for actual oppression, they saw and resisted the very 
beginnings of misgovernment. It was not the amount of the 
tax, but the principle on which it was demanded, that kindled 
into a flame of indignant patriotism their jealous love of liberty. 
They knew, as by intuition, that there could be no freedom for 
a people who were subject to be bound, " in all cases whatso- 
ever," by the action of a legislative body in which they had no 
representation ; and upon this theme they spoke and wrote, 
remonstrated and reasoned, with a gravity of style and a 
strength of argument that have never been surpassed. To the 
clearness of perception, the vigor of understanding, and the 
reach and comprehensiveness of thought which are so admira- 
bly displayed in their State papers, they joined a courage and 
constancy of soul which neither (oil nor danger could daunt or 
discourage. And so, when the war of words was over, they 
did not shrink from that of arms ; and, having once appealed 
to the sword in defence of their rights and their homes, they 
rose easily and grandly to the majestic conception of redeeming 
the colonies from a condition of political dependency, and of 
clothing them with the name, the powers and the attributes of 
free and sovereign States. Over the perilous path of revolution, 
through the valley of the shadow of death, they led the way 
to independence; and. after seven years of war, against fearful 
odds, and amid privations, reverses and disasters that would 
have shaken the purpose of less constant men, they made good 
their declaration, in the face and by the acknowledgment of 
nations, and rescued the fairest portion of the New "World, for 
ever, from the tyrannous grasp of the Old. 

Nor did their services end with the achievement of indepen- 
dence. Having broken asunder an old monarchy, they next 
applied themselves to the work of building up a free republic. 
When we consider the novelty of the enterprise, and the diffi- 
culties necessarily incident to it. we cannot but regard this 
undertaking as still more extraordinary than the other. Who 
can tell how much of virtue, of wisdom and of political science 
far in advance of the day was required, to restrain a liberty, 



11 

just bom of revolution, from rushing madly into licentiousness ; 
to teach a people, in the very flush and fever of a triumph won 
by the sword, the noble lesson of self-control, and to turn, by 
the power of reason and persuasion, into one broad, deep chan- 
nel of safety, the conflicting tides of passion and opinion, which 
threatened to overwhelm all in anarchy ; to devise for the sepa- 
rate States laws and institutions, and new and untried forms of 
popular representative government, recognizing the people as 
the source of power, and securing, by proper guards and restric- 
tions, the responsibility of the rulers to the ruled ; and after- 
wards, with a view to the common defence, and the formation 
of a more perfect union, to bind together by a Constitution, or 
Fundamental Law, the several independent commonwealths 
into one great confederated republic, embodying and realizing 
to the eyes of foreign nations the idea of American constitu- 
tional liberty, challenging their respect by its justice and its 
power, and awakening everywhere, in the hearts of those who 
dare to think of freedom, hopes and aspirations which, however 
long subdued, will be cherished long — yea, even until the day 
of their consummation shall come. 

Truly they were great men, who could so deal with a mo- 
mentous crisis in the history of a people ; who could call States 
into being; invest them with the insignia of sovereignty ; or- 
ganize them for happy and beneficent action, and administer 
their early functions, at home and abroad, with distinguished 
ability and success. On the rolls of fame there are no better 
or brighter names than those of the founders of the republic — 
of Washington "first in war, first in peace;" of Jefferson and 
Adams, Madison and Franklin ; of James Otis, Patrick Henry, 
Hamilton and Laurens ; of Gadsden, Hancock, the Rutledges, 
the Pinckneys, and a host of others, their comrades and com- 
patriots ! They have passed away, but their work survives ; 
and though that work should perish, still will their names and 
their principles live in the recollections of men, till history and 
tradition shall be no more. 

To them succeeded another generation of great statesmen. 
They too were "racy of the soil," and of a masculine vigor 
of character and intellect. Born amid the closing scenes of the 



12 

revolution, and sprung, for the most part, from those who had 
been actors in that great drama, they were familiar with the 
men and traditions of the times; and standing, as it were, 
near the fountain heads of patriotism, they drank largely of its 
living and health-inspiring waters. The great questions then 
in agitation, touching public and private rights, and theories 
and forms of government, generated a bold spirit of speculation 
and a courageous zeal for truth and freedom, which became 
thoroughly interwoven with the texture of their characters. 
As they grew to manhood, and advanced upon the stage of 
political action, the workings of the new government in all its 
departments, legislative, judicial and executive ; the lines of 
partition between the State powers and the Federal powers, the 
the former original and self existent, the latter derivative and 
delegated ; the extension of the boundaries of the republic, by the 
acquisition of new territory or the admission of new States ; its 
systems of currency, public credit and internal improvement ; 
and its foreign relations, particularly under the pressure of war, 
gave rise to a multiplicity of questions and measures, which 
were not only of new impression, but of sufficient magnitude to 
call into requisition the resources of the largest and most com- 
prehensive minds. Nor did they prove unequal to the exigen- 
cies of their position, in their debates and discussions, happily 
preserved for the delight and instruction of after times, they 
poured floods of light, such as only genius and eloquence can 
pour, upon the theory' and practice of our institutions; and 
their statesmanlike conduct is amply attested by the steady and 
well-assured growth of the country in power and consideration 
abroad, and in all the elements of material and moral greatness 
at home. 

Among these post-revolutionary statesmen, Calhoun, Clay 
and Webster were easily pre-eminent — "facile principes." 
Their superiority was acknowledged by common consent. 
They soared to heights and penetrated to depths which none 
others could reach ; — by the true mastery of intellect, they 
swayed the wills of masses of men ; — and by their joint counsel 
and action, they modified and controlled the progress of the 
country in its wonderful developments, in the distinguishing 



13 

properties of their minds they differed, just as we see excelling 
stars differ in glory. In one, an amazing power of thought 
and reason was chiefly predominant ; in another, a brilliant 
imagination and electrical eloquence ; and in the third, a beau- 
tiful and extraordinary combination of the imaginative and 
reasoning faculties. At times they stood side by side in the 
cause of the country, marshalling her, with glorious rivalry, in 
the ways of peace or of war ; and at other times, front to front, 
in the van of opposing ranks, they contended for victory with 
an ardor of battle that shook the realm to its centre. Who was 
in the right and who in the wrong in these conflicts of opinion, 
will always remain a fair subject for discussion and difference 
of opinion ; but when the heated passions of the day shall 
have died out and reason and justice shall have established 
their sway over the minds of men, the clear and calm voice of 
historical truth, speaking not for the day only, but for all time, ' 
will declare that, however varied their opinions and their mea- 
sures, they were one and all Americans and patriots at heart, 
true men and great statesmen, animated by an honesty of pur- 
pose, a zeal for what they believed to be the right, an intrepidity 
of soul and a commanding power of intellect, that have shed 
unfading lustre on the country. Such will be the verdict of 
that great tribunal of posterity, to which their motives and their 
actions are all now committed. 

It is not expected, on this occasion, that a minute and de- 
tailed narrative should be made of the life and services of Mr. 
Calhoun ; but it is expected, and properly too, that something 
should be said of his moral and mental qualities, as rare in 
their assemblage as in their separate excellencies ; of his cha- 
racter, so singularly pure ; of the great parts he acted in public 
affairs ; and of his claims to be considered a statesman, an 
orator and a political philosopher of the first rate, a benefactor 
of his country, and the particular pride and glory of his State. 
And although I cannot hope for the exercise of an ability at all 
adequate to the occasion, still do I invoke, and would fain bring 
to the task, some portion of that spirit of truth, of historical 
justice and loving charity, with which the men of after times 
will regard those whose names they will not willingly let die. 



14 

There is something beautiful and touching in the life-long 
relation which subsisted between Mr. Calhoun and the people 
of South-Carolina. So much of fidelity on his part, and of 
unfailing confidence on theirs, for so long a period of time, and 
during so many trying vicissitudes, presents a moral picture 
which no person of generous disposition can contemplate with- 
out emotion. Those who think lightly of it, do not consider 
the high qualities in which this remarkable instance of mutual 
devotion had its origin. It was not the offspring of art and 
management on the one side, nor of a blind and unreasoning 
attachment on the other. No man ever stooped less than Mr. 
Calhoun, to the degrading compliances of the demagogue or 
the courtier ; his real nobility of soul recoiled from them with 
scorn and loathing.- What his heart coined, his mouth spoke, 
and that with a freedom and fearlessness of utterance that was 
the best witness of his sincerity. It was not in self-seeking or 
time-serving, but in the voice of his conscience, smaller but 
more potent than the voice of the multitude, that he sought 
and found the law of his conduct. Dear to him as was the 
confidence of his State — dear (to use his own words, on a memo- 
rable occasion) as light and life — he never hesitated to run the 
risk of losing it, rather than disobey the sober and deliberate 
dictates of his judgment. He had the heroic courage of mind, — 
so essential to true greatness. — that could turn aside from power 
and place and the dazzling rewards of a high and successful 
ambition, to tread alone the narrow and rugged path of duty, 
undismayed by clamor or calumny, and sustained only by the 
consciousness of right and an intrepid faith in tlie ultimate 
triumph of truth. It is in the union of the highest moral with 
the highest intellectual nature, in that greatness of character 
which is the last finish and crowning excellence of greatness of 
mind, and which no single word perhaps so well expresses, as 
magnanimity, taken in its best sense, that we find the secret 
and the source of his marvellous ascendancy. Many, who 
would not bow to the majesty of his intellect alone, rendered a 
willing homage to the still more commanding majesty of his 
virtue. 

To the State of his birth, this great and good man, in obe- 



15 

dience to the double instincts of filial piety and patriotism, gave 
the first and choicest affections of his heart. He brought to 
her service all the resources of his brilliant mind, all the ener- 
gies of his ardent and aspiring soul. With a jealous love he 
watched over her interests, and her honor was dear to him as 
the apple of his eye. The radiance of his early triumphs shed 
upon her a reflected glory, only to be surpassed by the noontide 
and setting splendors of his later career. As her youthful 
representative in the federal councils, he rose at once to the first 
distinctions; and in that brilliant assemblage of orators and 
statesmen, known as the Twelfth Congress, he was likened to 
"one of the old sages of the old Congress, with all the graces 
of youth," and was hailed as "one of the master spirits, who 
stamp their names upon the age in which they live." In the 
discharge of the duties of a high executive department to which 
he was called, he signalized his administrative ability, giving 
proofs that his faculties of action were equal to his faculties of 
thought. The popular heart acknowledged the spell of his 
genius; and under the victorious auspices of the great republi- 
can party which then ruled the destinies of the country, he was 
elevated to the second office in the gift of the people. But one 
step more, and the summit of his ambition was reached ! That 
step he forbore ; that ambition he checked and curbed in mid 
career! The voice of his State called upon him, and he heard 
it only to obey. For the sake of her cause, which he believed 
to be the cause of " truth, justice and the constitution," he relin- 
quished without a murmur, and seemingly without a regret, all 
the bright ambitious hopes of his life, and took upon himself the 
arduous and self-denying character of her champion and her 
martyr. For more than twenty years, with a constancy of pur- 
pose that knew not the shadow of turning, and a power of rea- 
son and eloquence that will be admired so long as letters and 
knowledge shall survive among us, he contended, literally to 
the last beat of his heart, for the maintenance of her honor, and 
the vindication of her equal rights as a member of the Federal 
Union. And in the solemn closing hours of life, that so search- 
ingly try the truth of the soul, he uttered a regret that he 
could not have " one hour more in the Senate," to plead the 



16 

self-same cause ! What wonder that in his noble genius, his 
erect and dauntless bearing, his integrity so stainless and pure, 
and his loyalty, which neither the smiles of power could 
seduce nor its frowns intimidate, South-Carolina should recog- 
nize the qualities most worthy of her admiration ! "What won- 
der that she should extend to him in life the full measure of 
her affectionate confidence, and now that he is dead, should 
seek to perpetuate, by some enduring memorial, if not the glory 
of his services, at least the truth and sincerity of her gratitude! 
We are naturally curious to know something of the early 
training of great men, and of the methods of discipline under 
which they attained their mighty intellectual stature. All that 
is known of Mr. Calhoun in this regard, exhibits the self- 
reliance and native vigor of mind which characterized him in 
after life, and affords a striking example of the power of well- 
directed effort to compensate for the want of early advantages. 
During his first eighteen years, the academical instruction he 
received did not extend beyond the rudiments of reading, wri- 
ting and arithmetic, as taught in a country school. But we 
must not infer that this period of his life was passed without 
improvement. A mind like his could not subsist in idleness. 
Once in possession of the " golden keys," he unlocked for him- 
self the storehouses of knowledge, and gathered what he would 
from its heaps of rich and abundant treasure. By self-cultiva- 
tion, which deals with the world within as well as the world 
without, with our own thoughts as well as the thoughts of other 
men, he developed and strengthened the natural powers of his 
understanding. He certainly had, at that time, the power and 
habit of study, for we learn that, from a small circulating library 
within his reach, he selected various works on history and phi- 
losophy, which he read with such intensity of application as 
seriously to impair his health. In the choice of books, we may 
discover the natural bent of his genius; and his method of 
reading, described as so earnest and absorbing, was doubtless 
of that character which appropriates facts and principles, incor- 
porating them, as it were, by the power of thought, into the 
mind, and rendering them available for use, whenever occasion 
requires. Whether he had, at this time, any revelation to him- 



17 

self of the capacious faculties that were slumbering within 
him, or any glimpse or dream even of the great part he was 
capable of acting in the affairs of life, cannot now be told ; but 
certain it is, as will appear hereafter, that he had fixed in his 
mind a high standard of the sort and degree of preparation 
that was necessary to eminence in professional or political life, 
and that if it became his lot to embark in either, he would not 
be content to fall short of that standard. 

In his 19th year, an elder brother, moved either by fraternal 
love or an appreciation of his genius, proposed that he should 
receive an education at College. To his acceptance of this 
proposal Mr. Calhoun annexed two conditions, one of which 
shows the truthfulness of his affections, the other the maturity 
of his judgment, and both of them a fixedness of principle that 
was characteristic of him. The first was that the consent of his 
widowed mother should be freely given, without which he 
would not think of leaving her. Neither ambition nor the pros- 
pect of so great a boon as a liberal education could induce him 
to disregard the promptings of filial piety. Another great man, 
Mr. Webster, has told us that when his father first disclosed his 
intention of sending him to College, he laid his head on that 
father's shoulder and wept. How kindred in their emotions 
are noble natures, and how beautifully do these fine touches of 
humanity, gleaming out from them, like lights among the 
shadows of a landscape, soften and relieve the sterner charac- 
ter they acquire amid the cares and trials, the strifes and 
struggles of the world ! Had that mother and that father been 
spared to witness the full results of their self-denying parental 
love, how would their hearts have swelled with a delight which 
words are too poor to express ! Even now, they have their re- 
ward ! 

The other stipulation was, that such provision should be 
made as would maintain him at his studies for a period of 
seven years before entering upon his profession. Unless this 
could be done, he preferred to remain a planter. In those em- 
ployments which call for the highest displays of mind and 
knowledge, he knew that the superstructure could not be high 
and stable unless the foundation were laid broad and strong. 
2 



18 

Having set up in his breast a high ideal of excellence, he was 
fixed in his determination either to compass it in full or to fore- 
go the attempt. It is this spirit, the spirit of the motto " Ant 
Caesar, aut nullus," that is the actuating principle of all great 
efforts and great achievments. 

Happily both of these conditions were complied with. They 
have been dwelt upon not only because they illustrate the char- 
acter of the man, but because they are of importance in the 
way of encouragement and example to others. When Mr. 
Calhoun entered upon the business of education, he entered 
upon it in earnest, and with his whole soul. It was his habit 
then, as afterwards, to do thoroughly whatever he undertook. 
He was not content with the forms and outward shows of 
things, hut penetrated to the interior and the substance, pluck- 
ing out from the mystery its heart. The proper fruits of a 
solid education exhibited themselves in the ease and power 
with which, at his entrance upon life, he dealt with great af- 
fairs. 

The public life of Mr. Calhoun, from the time he entered on 
the stage of political action, is part of the public life of the 
country. So great was the part he played, and so thoroughly 
did he stamp the impress of his mind and his will upon all the 
leading questions of Federal policy, that no proper history of 
the times can be written which does not embrace a history of 
his opinions, actions and influences. In a more general point 
of view, his public life may be divided into two parts or eras. 
In the first of these he appears in the character of a great po- 
litical leader, inspiring with the ardor of his mind the counsels 
of the country ; animating it to a bold vindication of its honor 
against foreign aggression ; rallying its spirits, marshalling its 
resources, and organizing its victories in a war with the most 
powerful nation of the earth ; shaping its domestic policy upon 
the most liberal principles, in the delicate and difficult stages of 
a transition from a state of war to a state of peace, and admin- 
istering, with a capacity altogether unsurpassed, the high 
executive functions with which he was clothed. In the other, 
he stands forth in the rarer and grander character of a great 
political reformer, seeing and sternly resisting the abuses of the 



19 

times; battling, if without hope, with a heart of courage, on 
the side of liberty against the side of power ; sacrificing all 
personal considerations in a noble effort to restore the govern- 
ment to its original purity, and to recall the country to the paths 
of republicanism from which it had strayed ; throwing himself 
into the breach of a violated Constitution, and struggling there 
with the strength of a giant, and a self-devotion like that of 
the Spartan at the Pass, to save the rights of the States and 
the liberties of the people, from the overwhelming tide of fa- 
naticism and consolidation which threatened to sweep them 
away. Here are interesting and ample materials for political 
biography ; but a few glances at his career in each of these as- 
pects, is all that is compatible with the purposes and limits 
of this occasion. 

The war of 1812 has been called our second war for inde 
pendence. It was a war for commercial, as the first was for 
political independence. It was waged in vindication of neutral 
rights, and for the freedom of the ocean as the great and com- 
mon highway of nations. For a series of years previous to its 
declaration, Great Britain and France, the two great antago- 
nists in the mighty European struggle then in progress, 
particularly the former, had impressed our seamen and com- 
mitted depredations on our commerce, in utter disregard of our 
rights as an independent, non-belligerent power. In fact, they 
undertook, through their orders and decrees, to regulate our 
whole trade with foreign nations. The sensibility of the coun- 
try was deeply excited by these wrongs and indignities, but it 
was the policy of the government to preserve peaceful relations 
so long as it could be done consistently with the national honor. 
In pursuance of this policy, resort was had to a system of re- 
strictive measures, consisting of non-importation, embargo and 
non-intercourse acts, in the hope of compelling justice and en- 
forcing redress for the injuries to which we had been subjected. 

No sooner did Mr. Calhoun enter Congress, than he advocated 
a bolder and more decisive line of conduct. At this early 
period of his life, while still a young man, he gave proofs of 
that high quality of statesmanship which consists in taking 
large and commanding views of public affairs in great emer- 



20 

gencies, — going before rather than lagging behind public senti- 
ment — not so much following it, as moulding, directing and 
lifting it up. He was of opinion that we were about to enter 
upon the second struggle for our liberties with our ancient 
enemy, and that war speedily declared and wisely and vigor- 
ously conducted, was the only means of establishing the honor 
and safety of the country. He resolutely assailed the system 
of restrictions, as inefficient in itself and inconsistent with the 
genius of the people, and declared that he would prefer one 
victory over the enemy — by sea or land — to all the good that 
could ever be derived from restrictions. As chairman of the 
Committee of Foreign Relations, he reported the bill declaring 
war; and. after the declaration, he strenuously opposed the 
views of those who were in favor of uniting restrictions with war. 
"We have had," said he, "a peace like a war; in the name of 
Heaven, let us not have the only thing that is worse, a war like 
a peace." He rebuked the spirit of factious opposition; de- 
nounced the low and calculating avarice that would shorten 
the arm and cripple the power of the government in time of 
war; and in a style of nervous and manly eloquence, admira- 
bly suited to the occasion, appealed for a vigorous prosecu- 
tion of hostilities to every feeling of pride and patriotism that 
had a place in the hearts of his countrymen. There is so 
much of spirit and vigor in the contrast he drew between an 
active and a passive system of resistance, and in the animating 
appeals he addressed to the country, through the debates in 
Congress, that did opportunity allow, I should take pleasure in 
reading for your enjoyment some passages from those noble 
speeches, which even now ring out with a sound like that of a 
trumpet, and which, with Mr. Clay's, were read at the head of 
our armies, for the purpose of inspiriting the troops. 

Time has fully confirmed the justice and policy of the war, 
and too much praise cannot be rendered to those of our States- 
men who comprehended the crisis in its full proportions, and 
met it with a commensurate boldness and energy. It is im- 
possible to regard the conduct of Great Britain at that time in 
any other light than as a practical assertion of her supremacy 
upon the ocean, and of her determination, whenever her inter- 



21 

ests required it, to subject the commerce of the world to her 
supervision and control. Her belligerent maritime policy, 
resting upon her superior naval power, and undertaking to reg- 
ulate, according to her own views, the principle and practice of 
search and impressment, blockades and contraband of war, 
amounted virtually to a substitution of her imperious will upon 
the ocean for the recognized law of nations; — so that not only 
the lives and property of our own citizens but the neutral rights 
of States, were involved in the alternative of our resistance or 
submission. In this point of view it was devolved upon the 
young Republic, single-handed and alone, to defend not only 
her own honor but the maritime rights of the civilized world, 
against the colossal power of Great Britain, particularly after 
the latter had been released by the peace of Paris from all 
complication with European hostilities, and had been left free 
to turn against her the whole might of fleets and armies, fresh 
from the fields of their triumph. Her situation was full of 
peril and responsibility, but she was not intimidated ; and un- 
der the guidance of firm and patriotic counsels, she fought her 
way, on land and on sea, to the issue of an honorable peace. 

The Treaty of Ghent, it is true, did not profess to settle any- 
thing in relation to the original causes of war. The British 
orders in council had been revoked shortly after the declaration, 
and the matters of impressment and blockade were left, by mu- 
tual consent, in statu quo. The treaty looked only to the 
restoration of peace and of commercial intercourse upon a 
footing of reciprocity. Still the waging of the war was a prac- 
tical vindication of the strength of the government and of the 
patriotism of the people. To have succumbed would have 
been an acknowledgement of weakness and an invitation to 
greater aggressions. Nations, like individuals, hold their in- 
tegrity and their safety by the tenure of a willingness and a 
power to resist oppression. The effects of the course pursued by 
the United States were felt immediately. The character of 
the country rose in general estimation, and our flag, before al- 
most unknown, acquired a name and a recognition abroad. A 
higher tone of feeling and thinking, a tone of self-reliance and 
self-respect, sprung up in the bosoms of the people. The mem- 



22 

ory of Lundy's Lane and New Orleans became associated with 
that of Saratoga and Eutaw ; and by a sort of retributive jus- 
tice, in a war waged for the vindication of maritime rights, the 
thunders of our young but gallant navy woke echoes tha 1 
startled the "sea-girt Isle" in its dream of invincibility, and 
announced in many a brilliant victory that the mastery of the 
seas, if surrendered elsewhere, was still challenged by the 
young Republic of the West. The present security of our 
commerce on the ocean, and the immunity of American citizen- 
ship in distant lands, are among the legitimate fruits of the 
war of 1812. 

The career of Mr. Calhoun as a member of Congress, and 
as Secretary of War, placed him in the front rank of those upon 
whom the affections and hopes of the country were fixed. Al- 
though still young, he had displayed, in the highest degree 
those qualities of mind and character which most captivate the 
hearts of a free and intelligent people, and which to the end of 
the chapter will sway the destinies of a polity like ours — such 
as ardor, boldness, independence, a high and stirring eloquence 
that appeals to the morale of our nature, a fearlessness of re- 
sponsibility, a clear and quick sagacity to see what the highest 
interests of the country demand in moments of exigency, and 
an unflinching intrepidity in devising and carrying out the 
measures proper to secure them. Perhaps I cannot convey a 
more accurate idea of the estimation in which he was then 
held, than by laying before you the opinion entertained of him 
by one who was himself an orator and a ripe scholar, a pro- 
found lawyer and a most virtuous and accomplished gentleman. 
I allude to the late Wm. Wirt. In a letter from Mr. Wirt, then 
Attorney General of the United States, to his friend William 
Pope of Virginia, under date 12th Nov. 1824, he thus speaks of 
Mr. Calhoun : 

" I am sorry that you did not see Calhoun. He is a most 
captivating man. If the Virginians knew him as well as I do, 
he would be as popular in Virginia as he is in South Carolina. 
His is the very character to strike a Virginian — ardent, gen- 
erous, high-minded, brave, with a genius full of lire, energy 
and light ; a devoted patriot, proud of his country, and prizing 



23 

her glory above his life. I would turn him loose to make his 
way in Virginia against any other man in the United States, 
the ex-Presidents excepted. He wants only what age will give 
him to assure to him, I think, the universal confidence of the 
nation. He is at present a little too sanguine, a little too rapid 
and tenacious; but he is full of the kindest feelings and the 
most correct principles, and another Presidential term will, I 
think, mellow him for any service of his country."* 

Within a year from the writing of this letter, Mr. Calhoun 
was elected to the Vice Presidency by an overwhelming vote. 
The duties of this office are not of that engrossing character 
which could occupy the whole attention of a mind like his. 
It is understood to have been about this time that Mr. Calhoun, 
whose attention had been excited by the alarming growth of 
the Tariff system, instituted that searching and profound in- 
vestigation into the powers and the policy of the Federal 
Government, which wrought a change in his earlier opinions 
and gave character and direction to the whole current of his 
subsequent political life. Although there has been much ex- 
aggeration as to the extent of his agency in particular measures, 
there can be no doubt that while in Congress, during and im- 
mediately after the war, he participated generally in those 
views of domestic policy, sometimes called national, which 
were then almost universal. Indeed, in his remarks on the 
resolution in relation to the Madison papers, made in the Sen- 
ate, in 1837, Mr. Calhoun admitted that "when a young man, 
and at his entrance on political life, he had inclined to that 
interpretation of the Constitution which favored a latitude of 
powers ; but experience, observation and reflection had 
wrought a change in his views, and above all, the transcendent 
argument of Mr. Madison himself, in his celebrated resolutions 
of 1798, had done more than all other things to convince him 
of his error." It would not be just to his great memory, nor is 
it necessary to his fame or character, that there should be any- 
thing of concealment or disguise on this point. Magnanimity 
does not consist in never committing an error, but in rectifying 



* Kennedy's Memoirs of Wirt, 2 vol., p. 185. 



24 

it and making atonement for it. as soon as discovered. It is 
only the fool who never changes an opinion ; and he is no bet- 
ter than a coward and a knave, who stifles in his breast the 
convictions of reason and duty, and who, seeing the right, will 
still the wrong pursue. 

And here it may be proper to take a passing notice of the 
imputation that the change in Mr. Calhoun's political conduct 
was dictated by feelings of disappointed ambition, or of per- 
sonal hostility to General Jackson. Those who make the 
charge, have either overlooked or confounded the order and 
succession of political events. A slight reference to facts and 
dates will suffice to place this matter in its proper light. The 
letter of Gen. Jackson to Mr. Calhoun, which led to the rup- 
ture in their friendly relations, bears date 13th May, 1830. In 
that letter he expresses " great surprise " at a communication 
which has been made to him, and proceeds to say, ' : that 
frankness which I trust has always characterized me through 
life towards those with whom 1 have been in the habits of 
friendship, induces me to lay before you the enclosed copy of a 
letter from Wra. H. Crawford, Esq., which was placed in my 
hands on yesterday." It is unnecessary for the present pur- 
pose to enter into the subject-matter or the merits of the con- 
troversy ; the material fact is. that until May, 1S30, the 
relations between the President and Vice President were those 
of political association and personal good will. 

The agitation in South Carolina, upon the subject of a protect- 
ive tariff, had its commencement more than ten years prior to that 
date, the House of Representatives having, as early as 1820, af- 
firmed the principle of Free Trade, but declined embarrassing 
the action of Congress in what seemed to be intended for the regu- 
lation of commerce. In 182S Mr. Calhoun wrote the celebrated 
paper known as the " Exposition," which entered into a pro- 
found analytical examination of the principle and operation of 
the tariff system, and of the relations of the State and Federal 
Governments to each other. In this paper the protective tariff 
was characterized as unconstitutional, unjust and oppressive, 
and as tending to corrupt the government and destroy the 
liberty of the country ; and the remedy suggested in the event 



25 

of a failure of all other redress, was that the State should in- 
terpose her veto or sovereign authority, to protect the property 
and liberties of her citizens from the consequences of a delib- 
erate and dangerous infraction of the Constitution. At the 
same time, forbearance was recommended, under the hope that 
the great political revolution which on the succeeding 4th of 
March would bring into power " an eminent citizen (General 
Jackson), distinguished for his services to his country, and his 
justice and patriotism, would be followed up, under his influ- 
ence, with a complete restoration of the pure principles of our 
government." The same Legislature which adopted this 
Exposition, cast the vote of the State for Gen. Jackson as Pres- 
ident, and Mr. Calhoun as Vice President. Is it not clear that 
the "Exposition," which preceded the "correspondence " by 
more than a year, distinctly put forward the grounds upon 
which Mr. Calhoun afterwards planted himself, and foreshad- 
owed the subsequent action of the State under the guidance of 
his counsels? And is it not just as clear that nothing but a 
transposition or utter subversion of authentic historical facts. 
can lend the slightest shadow of foundation to the idea that the 
personal feud with Gen. Jackson was the exciting cause of the 
great political struggle in which Mr. Calhoun embarked? 

Equally absurd and without foundation, is the charge of dis- 
appointed ambition. In the fall of 1828, before the writing of 
the Exposition, Mr. Calhoun was Vice President. In the elec- 
toral college of that year, he had been re-elected on the same 
ticket with Gen. Jackson. They had come into office on the 
tide of a civil revolution which had swept away the power of 
the younger Adams, as that of 1800 had swept away the 
power of the elder. They stood together, the heads and repre- 
sentatives of a great and victorious party ; and it may be 
affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that the personal popu- 
larity of Mr. Calhoun, like his official station, was then second 
only to that of Gen. Jackson. He was in the line of succes- 
sion, and it was generally conceded that the influence of the 
Chief Magistrate would be exerted to promote his election to 
the Presidency upon his own retirement at the end of four 
years. It was at this time, and under these circumstances, 



26 

with the most smiling auspices around him, while his stav was 
yet in the ascendant and heckoned him on to the highest office 
to which an American citizen can aspire, that he shut his eyes 
upon the brilliant prospects before him, and devoted himself, 
heart, mind and soul, to the hard, arduous and unpromising 
task of reforming the government, and saving the country from 
the fatal proclivities of its rulers. In his own simple but em- 
phatic words — " The road of ambition lay open before me ; I 
had but to follow the corrupt tendency of the times; but I 
chose to follow the rugged path of duty." There will be dif- 
ference of opinion as to the soundness of his views, or the 
wisdom of his course, but it may be safely affirmed that our 
civil history does not present an example of sterner or more 
disinterested sacrifice of self to a sense of duty. 

The particulars of that struggle are familiar to you — many 
of you were actors in it, and most if not all of you know its 
history by heart — the argument, the agitation and the fierce 
contests — the assembling of the convention and passing of the 
ordinance — the proclamation and counter-proclamation — the 
call to arms, and the warlike preparations on both sides — the 
breathing space that precedes the shock — and then ' : the Com- 
promise" which stilled the troubled waters, and brought back 
again the calm and peace. In that, as in most exciting civil 
contests, the parties at home mistook each other's motives and 
purposes. On one side, it was believed that there was a reck- 
less determination to dissolve the Union, and on the other, that 
there was an utter insensibility to the wrongs and injuries of 
the State. Both parties were in error. Afteiwards mutual jus- 
tice was done, and the era of good feeling restored ; and 
thenceforward the unanimity of sentiment in the State has been 
almost unbroken. 

Throughout the whole contest with the Federal Govern- 
ment, the bearing of Mr. Calhoun was erect, manly and 
undaunted. He betrayed no fear, and shrunk from no respon- 
sibility. It was one of those occasions that test the moral 
courage — which is the highest form of courage and one of the 
noblest attributes of mind. He knew that his cause was un- 
popular ; that the hearts of the people had been turned against 



27 

him ; that his motives and purposes were misunderstood or 
misinterpreted ; that he was encircled by the arms and the 
power of the very government whose action he arraigned and 
sought to overthrow ; and that upon the issues of the contest 
it depended whether his name would descend to posterity, 
coupled with the epithet of traitor or of patriot : yet his coin- 
age did not fail nor his heart sink — he stood alone in the Senate 
house, unshaken, unterrified — and with no other weapons than 
those of justice, reason and eloquence, won a victory for his 
cause, and for himself a brilliant renown. There is something 
in a moral attitude like this, which, if we are satisfied of the 
sincerity of the man, although we may disapprove his cause, 
compels our admiration and sympathy. And well might one 
of his great antagonists, when in after years he stood beside 
his bier, and felt the memory of this and other scenes come 
thronging upon his heart, say to his surviving compeers, as he 
described his demeanor in the Senate, ' : who did not feel that 
he might imagine that we saw before us a Senator of Rome 
when Rome survived." 

It was certainly a great triumph to have brought to a stand 
a progressive policy like that of the American system, which 
pressed with gross inequality upon the capital and labor of the 
South ; which tended to enrich one section while it impover- 
ished the other ; which by means of the tariff created a surplus, 
and by means of internal improvements supplied the means of 
squandering it, thereby creating a demand as insatiable as the 
supply was lavish ; and the end of which, if unchecked, no 
man could well foresee. But still greater and more singular, is 
the merit and service of having recalled the attention of the 
country, by bold and profound discussion, to the nature, extent 
and limitations of the Constitution under which we live ; of the 
delegated and limited powers of a government which is federal 
and not national, and in which the States are the "integers of a 
multiple," and not " the fractions of a unit ; " and of the high, 
transcendent right of each State in the last resort, whether 
under or over the Constitution, to interpose in some form its 
sovereign authority, for the protection of the property or the 
liberties of its citizens; — a right which presents the only refuge 



28 

from intolerable oppression on the one side, and bloody revolu- 
tion on the other; a right to which, (whatever may be said to 
the contrary,) every State of this Union will assuredly and 
inevitably resort, whenever it feels that an occasion has arisen 
of sufficient magnitude to call for its exercise. 

It is in the order of Providence that at intervals of time men 
should be reared up, whose office and mission it is to abridge 
the powers and restrain the over-action of government; to 
oblige society to recur to first principles; to remind rulers of 
their trusts; and to enlarge or reclaim the liberties of the 
people. The time was when these foes to the "right divine" 
of rulers were denounced and oftentimes punished as traitors 
to the peace of society ; but now they are known and honored 
as the Apostles of Liberty. Such men were the leaders of the 
Barons who wrested the charters from King John at Runny- 
mede; such were Russell, and Sidney, and Hampden, and 
Milton, who in later days, in England, witnessed of the truth ; 
such were the Fathers of our Revolution ; such was Mirabeau, 
whose sentiment it was that c: privileges shall have an end, but 
the people are eternal ; " and such in our day was Calhoun, a 
man of a century, whose character will be better understood 
and more valued, as in the progress of our institutions, men 
shall come to have a more thorough knowledge of that liberty 
which in his own words, "comprehends the idea of responsi- 
ble power ; that those who make and execute the laws should 
be controlled by those on whom they operate ; that the gov- 
erned should govern." 

Time forbids us to follow Mr. Calhoun through the long se- 
ries of useful and brilliant services which, as an independent 
Senator in Congress, he rendered to the country. Party has its 
uses, but it has also its evils, and one of these is its tendency 
to blunt the moral sense, and to constrain to its behests the free 
and independent exercise of the judgment. Party has also its 
prizes and rewards; and the public man who undertakes to 
question its infallibility pays the penalty by periling his pros- 
pects of place and power. This Mr. Calhoun dared to do; 
he would not take the law from party, because he recognized 
higher obligations ; wherever his principles and his convictions 



29 

of duty led him, there was he to be found, seeking always the 
true spirit of the Constitution and the true policy of the coun- 
try. Such men are rare, because self-sacrificing virtue — not in 
a single instance upon emergency, but in steady, uniform, con- 
sistent action— is rare ; but when found, especially in a popular 
government where transient passion often takes the reason 
captive, their value is beyond all price. Take as a single ex- 
ample his course upon the Oregon controversy. This was one 
of those exciting questions that touched the infirmity of the 
American people— their love of land, their lust for territorial 
acquisition. The public mind had been wrought up to the 
highest pitch of excitement. The Democratic party, under the 
lead of the President, and with an ascertained majority in both 
Houses of Congress, had declared for " the whole of Oregon 
or none," and the Whigs fairly reeled before the impending 
storm. At this juncture, and with a view to the exigency, Mr. 
Calhoun returned, after a short retirement, to the Senate. He 
was offered by the President the mission to England, with the 
charge of the Oregon negotiation. He refused it. He knew 
that the battle was to be fought here before the country, and 
here he determined to stand. Peace and war trembled in the 
scales before him. Both parties looked to him. He stood be- 
tween them like some great Tribune of the people, armed with 
a veto upon the action of each. The opportunity was tempt- 
ing to place himself at the head of a great popular movement, 
but he determined that the peace as well as the honor of the 
country should be preserved ; and by his able discussions and 
the commanding influnnce of his position, he constrained a set- 
tlement which saved us from the direful consequences of an 
unnecessary war, and proved eminently satisfactory to the 
sober, second thought of the people. Upon this occasion, as 
upon others, he spoke that " word of guidance and deliber- 
ance," which when timely spoken by the proper person, the 
people seldom fail to recognize ; the word which rescues them 
from the dominion of their passions, and guides them in the 
path of true honor. In stemming the clamors of party and 
the madness that ruled the hour. Mr. Calhoun rose to the 
height of the patriot statesman, and stood before the country in 



30 

the attitude and full proportions of a rare and commanding 
greatness. 

The union between these States— I mean the Constitutional 
Union— is founded on the basis of perfect equality. Upon the 
acknowledgment of independence, the colonies became separate 
and sovereign communities, free to subsist severally or in con- 
nexion as they might choose. The Constitution, which is the 
law of the Union, professed to have for its object, among other 
things, to "establish justice," to "insure domestic tranquillity," 
and to " secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity." At the time of the adoption of the Constitution 
there were slaves in almost every State ; but in the plantation 
States they most abounded, and there, from the nature of the 
soil and climate, they were most likely to continue and increase. 
The regulation of commerce was with the North one of the 
most powerful inducements to the Union ; but with the South, 
whose great interest was agricultural, there was no such motive 
or necessity. Still a fraternal feeling, a recollection of common 
glories and common sufferings, and a general desire for security 
against dangers foreign and domestic, sufficed to bring all the 
States into a closer union than the confederation. But the 
Southern States, with a wise forecast and jealous caution, re- 
quired stipulations and securities in relation to that species of 
property which they felt to be peculiarly their own. Accord- 
ingly slave property was recognized and protected by the Con- 
stitution, in the ratio of representation, in the ratio of direct 
taxation, in the provision for the surrender of fugitives from 
service or labor, and in the clause which allowed the importa- 
tion of such persons as any State might choose, until the year 
1820. And it is a curious but significant fact, that the adoption o f 
this element in the ratio of direct taxation was intended as an 
equivalent to the Southern States for what they lost by it in 
the ratio of representation— an equivalent which has not been 
enjoyed by them in consequence of the general resort of the 
Government to indirect instead of direct taxation. 

Slavery is one of those mysteries which human reason can- 
not fathom. Why it has been and is and shall be, is of the 
counsel of God. But there are some things which we, among 



31 

whom it has existed for generations, do know — and these are of 
them : that it has a sanction in the Bible as well as in the 
Constitution ; that the co-existence of two races in this section 
and the subordination of the one to the other, has been produc- 
tive of positive good to both and has promoted the cause of 
civilization and religion ; that the institution has grown with 
our growth and strengthened with onr strength ; that it is 
wrought into all the parts and fibres of onr system, social and 
political ; and that in it are involved onr peace, well-being and 
prosperity, nay, the very safety and existence of ourselves and 
children. It is onr right, therefore, and our duty, to demand 
that it shall not be disturbed by others, either directly or indi- 
rectly. 

Onr forefathers dealt with this great interest and element of 
power like men and statesmen. They fairly balanced the 
government in relation to it ; and the covenant that they made 
in justice they- kept in good faith. Years of peace rolled on; 
the government grew in favor by its wise and beneficent opera- 
tion ; and the people of the States, even those who had been 
distrustful of the Constitution, began to feel and acknowledge 
that the Union which had sprung out of their liberties was a 
new and cumulative blessing, like 

" Another moon, 
Risen on mid noon." 

It was about the year 1818-19 that the spirit of fanaticism, 
the evil genius of this country, reared its miscreated front in 
the halls of federal legislation, bringing in its train discord, aliena- 
tion and woe. The admission of Missouri into the Union was the 
occasion of its appearance. An attempt was made to impose 
upon that State a restriction as to slavery within her limits. A 
fearful agitation ensued. Missouri was finally admitted without 
the restriction ; but a provision was inserted in the bill autho- 
rizing her to form a State government, by which slavery was 
for ever prohibited in all the territory acquired from France, by 
the name of Louisiana, lying to the north of 36° 30/ and not 
included within the limits of the State of Missouri. This was 
the Missouri compromise. It was a great and grievous error, 
because it violated the equal rights of the States, under the 



32 

Constitution, in an immense territory which was their common 
property ; because it connected a great moral and political 
principle with a geographical line ; because it established an 
odious distinction between the slaveholding and the non-slave- 
holding States ; and because it set an example which might be 
converted, as it has been converted, into a precedent for other 
and further encroachments. John Randolph saw it in this 
light, and refused to listen to any compromise ; Mr. Jefferson 
saw it in the same aspect, and said with a melancholy forebo- 
ding, he should " die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of 
themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-govern- 
ment and happiness to their country was to be thrown away by 
the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons." The country 
too has at length awoke to a sense of the error, and there is 
reason to hope that it is in the way, not of repairing the mis- 
chief, for that cannot be done, but of retracing, as far as may 
be. the false step then taken. 

For a series of years after the Missouri question, the spirit of 
aggression lay seemingly dormant ; but it had been quietly rein- 
forcing its strength and gathering up fresh materials of agitation. 
It re-appeared in the year 1835, in a new shape, seeking to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and other places' 
over which Congress had exclusive jurisdiction, and avowing 
that its ultimate object was to abolish it in the States. It in- 
vaded the school, the pulpit, the press, the popular elections 
and the halls of legislation. It became a tremendous element 
of political power, corrupted parties, swayed the operations of 
government, and finally shook the Union to its centre. 

When petitions in relation to slavery were first presented, Mr. 
Calhoun was in the Senate. He opposed their reception. Apart 
from the constitutional question, which he argued with great 
ability, his principle was to resist aggression in its beginnings, 
on the very frontiers ; and for the philosophical reason that 
it is the more easily resisted there than elsewhere. Besides he 
had the wisdom to know that the smallest danger to an object 
of vital importance should never be disregarded. No statesman 
of that day had so clear and deep an insight as he into the 
magnitude of the evil and the disastrous consequences it in 



33 

volved. With prophetic truth he foretold the stages of its future 
progress. He warned the country that it would infect the then 
sound masses of the North ; that its object was to establish a 
foothold in Congress as the centre of operations for a crusade 
against the institutions of the South ; and that if it were allowed 
to proceed unchecked, deadly hostilities would spring up be- 
tween the two sections, the conflicting elements of which would 
rend the Union asunder. The warnings of Cassandra were 
not more true or more unheeded. The outside barriers were 
soon thrown down : petitions poured into Congress ; and aboli- 
tion marched on its way triumphant. 

Mr. Calhoun was opposed to the Mexican war. The depth 
of that opposition, as he said, no man knew but himself. He 
foresaw that it would bring an acquisition of territory, and by 
inevitable consequence a renewal of strife. And such was the 
end. Brilliant as were the successes of the war. nothing can 
compensate for the civil mischiefs that have followed in its 
train. 

The counsel and conduct of Mr. Calhoun in relation to the 
territorial question was wise, patriotic and truly conservative. 
Timid minds called it rash, but in reality it was only bold and 
statesmanlike. There are some diseases of the body politic 
which take such deep root in the system as to defy the nostrums 
of quackery and require the skill and courage of science. 
This was one of them. He saw that it was a momentous issue 
touching the foundation of government and the safety of society, 
and he girded up his loins to grapple with it for life or for death. 
The difficulty lay not only in the hostile feeling — whether origi- 
nating in fanaticism, or the lust of power, or both combined — 
which had arrayed one part of the country against the institu- 
tions of the other ; but in the action of the government, which 
in obedience to that sentiment, had destroyed the equilibrium in 
the relative, political power of the two parts — an equilibrium 
which the very existence of an unfriendly geographical feeling 
rendered the more necessary for the protection of the weaker 
section. With patriotic anxiety he looked around for a remedy— 
for a means to "save ourselves and save the Union." He could 
• see none outside the Constitution. What faith or dependence 
3 



34 

could be placed upon compromise, when even the Missouri line, 
a great and fatal concession on the part of the South, was repu- 
diated and scornfully rejected by the North. The political ele- 
ments were in wild commotion. The winds and the waves 
were up. There was no safety but in a retreat upon the Con- 
stitution. Hear his words : " I see my way in the Constitution; 
I cannot in a compromise. A compromise is but an act of 
Congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives us no 
security. But the Constitution is stable. It is a rock. On it 
we can stand, and on it we can meet our friends from the non- 
slaveholding States. It is a firm and stable ground, on which 
we can better stand in opposition to fanaticism than on the 
shifting sands of compromise. Let us be done with compro- 
mises. Let us go back and stand upon the Constitution." 

The equality of the States in their federal relation, equality 
in dignity and rights, was the great principle upon which he 
planted himself, and to which he held with unrelaxing grasp. 
It was the earnest and rooted conviction of his mind, confirmed 
by deep study and a long experience, that nothing but the 
practical recognition of this principle, enforced by fundamental 
guarantees, could save the South — the section in which his own 
dearest affections were garnered up, in which so much of intel- 
ligence, virtue, high civilization and uncalculating patriotism 
has its chosen seat, and which it harrowed the very depths of 
his proud soul, to contemplate as sinking clown into a condition 
of unresisting inferiority; and that nothing but this could in the 
end save the Union— the arena of his glories and his sacrifices — 
to which he had devoted so many years of noble and patriotic 
service, and which in his heart of hearts, he loved better and 
more wisely than those who slandered and calumniated his 
name, and who, while they cried with treacherous lips "All 
hail to the Union !" were inflicting blow after blow upon the 
Constitution, which is the life of the Union and without which 
it can " bear no life." 

He died in the midst of the controversy. The "terrific diffi- 
culty" pressed on his mind to the last, and with his dying breath 
lie consecrated the principles for which he lived and labored. 
In him the cause of the Conslitulion, which is the cause of 



35 

justice and liberty, as well as of Union, lost a steadfast friend, 
its ablest and most strenuous defender. And if indeed it has 
been cloven down in disastrous battle, it was because genius 
and virtue and the most chivalric spirit of heroism could not 
avail anything to prevent the catastrophe. 

"Si Pergama dextra 
Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent." 

The genius of Mr. Calhoun, as exhibited in his oratory and his 
writings, was of a commanding character, and will live in its 
effects not only on our institutions, but on the minds of men 
wherever the record of his thoughts shall reach. In its modes 
of display it was purely original, and more strongly marked 
perhaps than that of any of our public men. His clear and 
powerful intellect . grasped with equal facility the minutest 
details and the broadest general views. The rapidity of his 
intellectual processes was equalled only by their precision. 
The thinking power — not only the power of analysis which 
resolves complex ideas into their elements, but that of gene- 
ralization which combines facts and principles into theories and 
systems— was developed in him to an amazing extent. In this 
regard, as well as in the fullness of his material and the sen- 
tentious but pregnant brevity of his expression, his spoken and 
written discourses are a discipline for the student, and will 
instruct and delight posterity as they did the audiences to which 
they were addressed. The ardor of his mind, the vehemence 
of his will, was imprinted on every word he spoke and every 
line he wrote ; but no one could fail to perceive that it was not 
the zeal of the advocate, but the deep earnestness, the intense 
and irrepressible enthusiasm of the lover of truth. Nor were 
his discussions confined to the interests of party or the purposes 
of a day ; for in many of his speeches and papers, and more 
especially in that Posthumous Work which contains an elaborate 
exposition of his views of the science of government, he 
dealt with the great questions of right and liberty which are at 
the foundation of society and which affect the permanent well- 
being of mankind. To him more than to any of his cotempo- 
raries will be awarded the praise of having found or made time, 



36 

amid the busy cares of an active and stirring public life, to 
devote the powers of his clear and profound mind to philosophi- 
cal speculation ; and of having added, in systematic shape, the 
suggestions of a high reason and the inductions of a large 
experience to the general sum of scientific knowledge. 

Mr. Calhoun's practical statesmanship was manifested in his 
conduct of the war — of which he was the master spirit ; and 
in the management of the War and State Departments— the 
former of which he reduced to its present admirable state of 
organization ; and there is no extravagance in affirming that in 
power of combination, in fertility of resources, in the happy 
adaptation of means to ends, and in all the qualities which 
are required for administrative ability, he was not surpassed by 
any executive officer the country has had. It is sometimes 
said, as if in disparagement, that he failed to enforce his policy. 
This may be the fault of opportunity or circumstances and not 
of the man. The mere politician may win a short triumph 
upon the expedient of a day ; but it requires a higher mould 
of character, a nobler and more masterly wisdom, to mark out 
the line of conduct which, however rejected or disregarded at 
the time, will yet come to be recognized and approved by the 
more enlightened judgment of the people. Fox was a great 
statesman and yet he failed to carry out his policy ; but it is 
believed that the principles and the fame of Fox are at this 
day dearer to the heart of the mass of the British nation than 
those of his great and successful rival, the younger Pitt. Mr. 
Calhoun's name is identified with the freedom of commerce, and 
with those principles of government which give the amplest 
securities to the liberty of individuals and the rights of States^ 
and just in proportion as mankind progress in the idea that the 
world is governed too much, will his policy be enforced and his 
statesmanship vindicated. 

The character of Mr. Calhoun is a noble subject for contem- 
plation. It has the mingled air of simplicity and grandeur which 
we are in the habit of ascribing to the great historical charac- 
ters of antiquity. He was 

" Like Cato firm, like Aristides just, 
Like rigid Cincinnatus, nobly poor." 



37 

The same characteristics pervaded his personal demeanor, 
his oratory and his public exhibitions of himself, for they sprung 
out of the nature of the man. He knew no distinction between 
public and private morality and regarded the State as but a 
wider sphere of duty than the family. Venality did not soil 
him, nor vulgar ambition corrupt his honesty. Office had no 
charms for him except as a means of public good ; — witness his 
refusal of the mission to England that he might confront the 
danger at home, and his acceptance of the department of State 
under Mr. Tyler, that by the annexation of Texas he might 
add a noble domain to the Union and secure our commerce and 
our frontier from the machinations of a foreign power. The 
highest office could not have honored him more than he would 
have honored it, for it was generally admitted that he was 
altogether worthy of it. In times of peril the eyes of the coun- 
try turned instinctively to him for counsel or command ; and 
the people of his State, who knew him best, were held bound 
to him, as if locked in indissoluble sympathy, by the wondrous 
spell of his genius and worth. No low or sordid motive was 
ever imputed to him; indeed nothing could be more admirable 
than the high tone of his moral and political sentiment. Out 
of this grew that stern and unyielding civic virtue which, as 
presented in his public conduct, is a picture and a study; and 
which, by the confidence it inspired, enabled him to stand alone, 
without place or patronage, upon a level where no other man 
could have stood so long, and by the force of his individual 
authority to overrule the fierce struggles of party for the good 
of the country. He resembled Chatham, not only in "the 
question of his death," as falling in the Senate House ; but in 
the high antique style of his virtue, in his contempt for " the 
spoils," and in the indignant scorn with which he rebuked the 
corruptions and smote the abuses of his day. Not being the 
head of a great party, he received no venal adulation, nor did 
he covet it ; and as he preferred the interests of the people to 
their applause, his fame will be only the reflection of his great- 
ness. [The real substance of this will throw a mighty shadow 
along the tract of time ; and when hereafter men shall contem- 
plate calmly and without passion, the simple but majestic quali- 



38 

ties of his nature, his purity, his truthfulness, his contempt for 
calumny, his courageous love of truth and justice, the deep ear- 
nestness and sincerity of the man that looked upon duty as more 
than life, and that greatness of soul which aspired in thought, 
word and action to whatever is most excellent in the estimation of 
men — all displayed, without effort or ostentation, in the private 
and social relation, as well as upon the theatre of public action — 
they will agree in the opinion that he was one of the grandest 
characters that America has produced. 

Gentlemen of the Association : — We are united for the pur- 
pose of raising a suitable memorial in honor of the name of 
Calhoun. In this work of civic gratitude, we but give expres- 
sion to feelings and impulses that are common to the hearts of 
the people of the State, and that will find a response in every 
parish and district, from his late mountain home to his tomb near 
the sea. It is not that a monument is necessary to his fame, for 
this rests on foundations more enduring than marble or brass. 
In his genius which was animated by duty, in his virtue which 
stood " firm as a rock against the beating waves," in the great- 
ness of his example, in the lessons of his recorded wisdom, and in 
the sum of his illustrious public services which extended over a 
period of more than forty years and compassed the whole circle 
of national politics and interests; — in these are his titles to 
renown. Tradition and history will take care of his memory. 
Not for him are the column and the pile ! 

" Dear son of Memory ! Great heir of Fame ! 
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name ? 
Thou in our wonder and astonishment 
Hast built thyself a livelong monument, 
And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie, 
That kings for such a tomb might wish to die !" 

We who have had the happiness to see and hear and know 
him, have his image in our hearts, and need no other remem- 
brancer. But a feeling of gratitude to the dead and a sense of 
duty to posterity alike impel us to this work. Around the 
monument we rear will cluster associations that will render the 
spot a place of pilgrimage to those who succeed us. There 
will they repair to refresh their patriotism, to strengthen or catch 



39 

anew the sentiment of duty, and to learn how beautiful and 
noble a thing it is to serve one's country and to be remembered 
by it with blessings ! 

Ladies of Carolina — .-With modest ardor you have obeyed 
the instincts of your nature and brought the homage and the 
offerings of your hearts to the altar of a great memory. In 
what another has called "the almost seraphic purity of the 
personal character" of Mr. Calhoun, and in the beautiful consist 
ency of his public with his private virtue, is the charm that has 
won you to this labor of patriotic love. There is hope in your 
sympathy ; there is encouragement in your smiles ; there is the 
sober certainty of success in your endeavors. And when in com- 
ing years the column shall lift its summit in noble proportions to 
the sky, a fit emblem of his worth and a memorial worthy the 
gratitude of a generous people, its crowning beauty will be the 
garlands of grace thrown upon it by the hands of his fair 
country-women ! 



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